125: JUMP!

This is Joey Lawrence

A very talented, young photographer who was willing to humour us with jumping over Di's rubber duckie.

The duckie is on the floor, in all its duckie glory :-D

124: Hogtown!

So I spent the weekend in Toronto. I stayed with a good friend of mine who I used to work with in Montreal and his girlfriend (a friend as well :-) ). They have just moved into a cute apartment right downtown.They have a view out their window of the water, and a fabulous open concept apartment.

This particular shot was taken with my 16mm fisheye lens. I had intended this for the night challenge, but the fisheye distortion doesn't quite work in this shot. The only thing really fish eyed is the CN tower, so it just sort of looks odd

This is the view from my friend's terrace on a terrace of the building. Not to shabby! The terrace has a backgammon and chess table (bring your own pieces) and little picnic benches as well. It will make a fabulous place to chill on a summer afternoon.

123: Wine...

For a real comparison review, you must check out my boyfriend's wine review blog here. I preferred the merlot. It was interesting because he gave me a true blind taste test. Normally, I would not consider myslef a big merlot fan, but I enjoyed it more than the cab/shiraz blend.

The picture is a quickie edit, just some WB adjustment and contrast in RAW and some levels in PS

I am heading to Toronto tomorrow, and my friends I am staying with have just moved, so they I don't know how much internet access they have.

When I get back on Monday, I will update the blog with (hopefully) fantastic photos from the DPC Toronto GTG and whatever else I happen to take pictures of!

See you Monday!

122: Sun Goddess

This is our sun goddess, Callye! She was the one who provided all our wonderful reflected fill light. Thank you!

121: Pensive

Yah! Blogger is working. So, a re-edit from the studio shot. One light with snoot and a reflector for fill. Some hard core editing since the background was white. Ended up grey in the picture, so lots of tweaking and masking in PS to get it here. Covnert to B&W and voila!

120: Pyramid

OK, having fun again! Cheers!

119: Callye's Bobo

This is Callye's bobo, or booboo. Here in Quebec, you get a boo-boo, it's called a bobo. Boo-boo is actually a derivative of bobo, which is French. Google is great!

The piece she is rehearsing requires her to jump up and hang onto a tall wall. The way to get up involves running towards the wall and then doing a sort of pseudo climb up the wall. This means her left knee gets knocked into the wall at high velocity.

Knee + high velocity + wall = HUGE bruise. She showed me the bruise and I said, we HAVE to take a picture! It will probably only turn more pretty colours this week!

Yes I"m holding my awesome remote in my hand :-P

118: Jean Seb

So, one thing we discovered was that we were placing our models too close to the backdrop. This picture seems to have vignetting, but it's more because the backdrop we were using was dirty where Jean Seb was sitting than because of lighting problems. We pulled our model several feet from the backdrop, and it solved a lot of the problems we were having earlier. Thanks John!!

The other thing we discovered was that the reflector is more than just a really cool wind generator for making someone's hair fly around. This time around, we used the gold side mostly. We used one light as our main source, and used the reflector, which made a huge difference in shadows on the model. We used two other lights for the backdrop.

117: Studio Revisit

So, this is being posted for Friday, but reality is this was taken Saturday.

We (Jean-Sebastien, Callye, and John) and I went back to the studio again. This time, since we had an idea of what studio stuff is, we decided to focus on more technical things, like 'Rembrandt lighting' and other classic portrait studio things. We also learned a couple of great lessons.

This, however, is me being a goof. I was showing off my remote shutter as we were getting ready to do some fun group stuff. As we were switching lights, we figured it made a good refreshment break as well ;-)

We don't wear our shoes (in less you are the model) on the paper, since it's white, so I've got my boyfriends nice and comfy wool socks on. Glad I brought them!

116: Real picture of the kitty

So after yesterday's debacle, you get a realy picture of the kitty.

115: What to do with a baaad picture

Typical of cats. There is a cat in our neighborhood who meanders around, and will even walk into your apartment if the door is open. She (I think) was sitting on my neighbors porch, so I thought, cool, snap a few pictures and I've got my PAD (well two since I missed this one).

Of course, the cat gets up and starts coming my way. Decided I was hers and did the rubbing thing, and of course, then proceeded to stretch with her behind to me.

So, I took an out of focus picture, and butchered it, just for the heck of it. I think it's horrific, but the best part, is I get to call it 'art' because I created it!

114: 1 done, 3 to go

Today I wrote my last exam for this year. One year down, three to go. So what you're staring it are my notes and textbooks from this semester. I know, lots of paper. I'm a nerd and type my notes because otherwise I wouldn't be able to study off of them.

Next semester will include organic chemsitry, molecular biology, laboratory techniques, biometry (statistics), and either an essay writing course or a management course. CAN'T WAIT!

Next semester will be tons of work. In the meantime, I get to go to Puerto Rico and volunteer in a lab. Plus I get to enjoy the summer in Montreal :-)

113: Challenge Entry

This is a challenge entry

This will be erroneous double spaced nonsense

In case someone stumbles upon my blog

And is hugely offended

I posted my picture

And destroyed all anonymity

And am trying to have

An undo influence

On the voters

Who are oh so easily swayed

If I asked them to change their vote

On my picture

I actually think if I asked people to change their vote on my picture, they'd vote me down.

If you still want to see the picture

Go ahead!

112: Intensity

This isn't my picture. It's a picture my mother brought back with her from Nigeria when she was there in the 60's. I'm 90% sure she took, but I can't remember.

The men are about to engage in a wrestling match, and you can see the crowd behind them. I've always loved the expressions on their faces.

It looks terrible because this is a snapshot through a frame, and thus the wonky relfections which I am to tired to PS out. Well, I would PS them out if I had the time and I knew how to do it. Knowing how always helps.

I just want to say something regarding my post yesterday. The people I was referring to (who seem to objectify women based on what they wear) are the ones who will swagger into women and make fake licking moves at them, or hoot and holler out the windows of their car as they drive. As Matt pointed out, looking at someone because they have a nice body, or work out, or whatever, is perfectly normal. Sexual selection at it's best! :-D I just wanted to clarify I was referring to the slimier jeers and looks. Looking is perfectly normal, and I apologize for not making that clear.

111: Gratuitous Behind Shot

Now that the weather is warmer, all the layers of clothing are coming off as well.

I love people watching, and I love to sit in a pedestrian traffic heavy and watch the people go by. As the layers come off, the rubbernecking gets its own workout. I've noticed that the number of men who will turn to look at someone's behind is generally a higer number than a women who will turn to look at a males behind. Granted, a large part of this is because women wear those TIGHT, low riding pants. For the record, I can't stand them (those pants).

Anyways, the title reminded me of an episode of the current Amazing Race where there was a gratuitous butt shot of one of the more shapely women in the competition. I guess the camera man was happy he had a telephoto zoom lens. It made me laugh because it made no attempts to hide what kind of shot it was - a shot of a woman's butt, and it was a blatant shot for the folks who like to look at butts. No generalized genders or sexual orientations will be mentioned.

It's funny. Women today are taught to be confident in themselves - proud to be a woman. Many will dress to show this off, yet it seems to end up objectifying them as sexual objects to be ogled at. I dunno. Seems like women can't win. Be proud and show off your feminity, but be prepared to be drooled on and looked at as a sexual object of desire.

My rant for the day is done. Go take a pretty picture :-)

110: Spring is bustin' out

Shot out my backdoor. Complete snapshot. Quick PP so I know it looks odd. Oh well.

109: Me II

So, way back when it was still cold and there was snow and ice all over the place, I had mentioned the idea of doing and on again off again project of sort of self portraits of me sitting in a chair in random places.

Well, this is one more for the series, though in a not terribly creative place. Don't worry, I have some better ideas!

I now feel like I can resume this PAD with a fresh eye and new start now that the bulk of my finals are done. I have one more one Tuesday, and as you can see, I am studying for it.

While in NY, I picked up a remote trigger for my camera, and can I just say it is REALLY COOL! No more running back and forth in the ten second alotted timer time! No more prefocusing on something, switching it to manual focus, and then pushing the shutter! And if you're wondering, it's in my right hand.

Winter is officially over as I was able to wear sandels to all three of my exams.

About the picture: I apologize for the blown out highlights on the right side of the picture. I had the sun on my left, and the picture was taken out my front door hallway.

I have to say it's nice to take pictures again :-)

Soon...

Almost done...
Last of three in a row in tomorrow... well, later today.

I have one on Tuesday, but the killer was this stretch
Physics on Tuesday, Chemistry on Wed, and Bio on Thursday

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving being back in school, but it's a lot of work studying for three exams abck to back. It's actually harder than having two exams on one day I am finding.

C'est la vie!

In retrospect, I think it's good I took a small (unplanned) break from photography. I think I'll get back into it witha freash perspective, full of ideas of molecular biology and how to synthesize DNA :-)

106: Finals

Fooled you!

No pictures
I have three finals this week, and I'm barely going to be able to find time to shoot for Terry's MS bracketing tourny.

Will catch up after I slog my way through this weird stuff called science.

105: Reflection

I know, been there, done that, but I still think it's fun. From a walk that my boyfriend and I took yesterday. Was nice out, and I needed to get out and stretch my legs. I was getting cross eyed staring at circuits and DNA synthesis. Today it's raining. While I don't like rain, it does mean pretty flowers soon!